1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method and a computer-readable recording medium for causing a computer to execute the image processing method.
2. Related Art
There are related digital cameras in various modes. In recent years, a digital camera having the function of storing RAW data which is photographed by an image capturing unit such as a CCD before a development processing, has been developed and put on the market. Such a function is loaded in order to respond to a user's demand that he (she) wants to develop an image photographed by himself (herself) over a personal computer as he (she) likes. The RAW data are stored in a RAW file together with header information including various information and reduced image data (for example, thumbnail data or screen nail data) created by thinning from each RAW data by a predetermined pixel. In the case in which the user reads the RAW data in the RAW file to perform a retouch over the personal computer for the first time, software installed in the personal computer displays an image based on the RAW data on a display. In order to display the image based on the RAW data, a so-called white balance correction is performed to display the image in some cases. At this time, all of color information about each pixel are read from the RAW data, and pixels to easily influence a distortion of an average color of an image to a specific color (for example, a flesh color, a green color of trees and plants or a color of a blue sky) are excluded to average the color information about the residual pixels, thereby calculating a color coefficient of a white balance correction according to JP-A-2004-282133.
However, the RAW data generally have a larger data volume than developed data. For this reason, there is a problem in that a time required for a processing is increased if all of color information about each pixel are read from the RAW data to perform a white balance correction.